since their breakup in 1999, the verve reunited last fall to perform the thaw sessions on nme.com. displayed as fourteen minutes of sheer unrehearsed brilliance, the band’s jam created the essence of wandering back in time to their hypnotic past and easily getting lost in their sound. recently, the verve performed at coachella, highlighting with memories of bittersweet symphony and tempting the audience with a few new unreleased songs to enjoy.

recorded in 1997, the verve performed live for the black sessions in paris, france, presenting a powerful collection of eight songs shared inbetween the albums urban hymns and a northern soul.

01. a northern soul
02. this is music
03. the drugs don’t work
04. life’s an ocean
05. bittersweet symphony
06. lucky man
07. history
08. come on

::download the zip::

artwork by cheri nelson

the national is one of those bands that may take some time to listen to. it comes in slow doses, categories of so-called emotion seeking, trying to decipher something that triggers deep inside, that must be found somewhere else visually in the music. after a few sessions, the feeling develops into an ongoing story, as if you’re sitting on a train with a soundtrack set to the cast of a melancholy city and the rest-assured personality that carefully follows along.

dj bernard lenoir has organized the black sessions on france radio inter for many years. referred to as the french john peel, lenoir discovered many amazing underground english and french artists, influencing their musical career and success.

back in 2003, the national’s sophmore album “sad songs for dirty lovers” became lenoir’s favorite album of the year and he invited the cincinatti band several times to play his acclaimed live sessions.

black session // 11.17.03
a collection of material from the national’s self-titled debut, cherry tree ep and the album sad songs for dirty lovers.

son
thirsty
slipping husband
all the wine
cold girl fever
murder me rachael
90-mile water wall
lit up
pretty forever
cherry tree
available
about today

.download the zip file.

black session // 04.29.05
a collection of material from the national’s cherry tree ep and their third album alligator.

all the wine
secret meeting
driver surprise me
lit up
cherry tree
baby, we’ll be fine
geese
city middle
looking for astronauts
mr november
daughters of the soho riots
abel
wasp nest

.download the zip file.

“Pop Art has always been my favorite style. I like how it’s simplistic in a sense but it’s also a way to capture split-second emotions. It’s blatant and there aren’t too many undertones. I also like the feeling of looking through a window of a store or gallery or standing twenty feet away from a painting and being able to see every detail. I think once I started painting all the time, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I just wanted to be a painter.”

artwork by lucas vidana

am i living wrong
do you see a long road with no one on it
and the right of men that you learnt only to forget
you see my sad wife and my high margin of profit
but you don’t care at all
you don’t care
at all

theres something about these live french radio sessions that seem to resonate such a surreal quality. patterns of sounds sharing a vulnerability that can’t always be found in an open scattered arena; hearing this type of emotion and intimacy should be a state of mind set for every moment of any performance.

the veils
black session // 10.30.06

a birthday present
jesus for the jugular ***
one night on earth
calliope!
state trooper (springsteen cover)
nux vomica ***
advice for young mothers to be
under the folding branches
the wild son
pan ***
not yet
more heat than light

***highly recommended

artwork by izabella pierce